Watch out for china Walt

THE millions of Chinese children captivated by the charismatic characters in The Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, one of Chinas most popular homegrown animations, ardently follow their humorous misadventures on TV and DVD, as well as in books and comics. The sales volume of the 200 publications based on the TV series is in excess of 15 million. Its producer, Guangdong-based Creative Power Entertaining (CPE), has made Chinese New Year movie adaptations of the goat and wolf story since 2009. All four films have generated impressive box office returns. Meanwhile, Disney has reached an agreement with the company to promote and broadcast 100 updated episodes of the TV series in 52 countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific Region. Industrial insiders estimate the market value of The Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf as in excess of RMB 1 billion, which makes these goatlings and their lupine foe Chinas most bankable animation characters.

The success of The Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf signifies the huge potential of Chinas animation market. Intensified finance and policy support from the central government over the past years has taken Chinas animation industry into a new phase of development.

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Wan Laiming and his three brothers produced Chinas first screen cartoon, an advertisement for the Shuzhendong Chinese Typewriter, in 1922. Chinas animation industry has since produced such excellent works as Little Tadpole Looking for Mom, Monkey King, Black Cat Detective and Gourd Brothers. But only over the past decade or so have Chinese cartoons gained a foothold in the international animation market.

Chinas government turned its focus on the animation industry in 2004 – a year that marked a watershed in its development. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television(SARFT) issued on April 20, 2004 the “Decisions on Development of Chinas TV & Movie Animation Industry,” which represent the central authorities first administrative measures to boost the industry. China established its first national animation and electronic game production base in Shanghai in July of the same year. By year-end the authorities had sanctioned three satellite cartoon channels in Beijing, Shanghai and Hunan respectively. The government also designated nine animation industry production bases and four teaching and research bases across the country. The SARFT invites public tenders for the honor of hosting and sponsoring the annual China International Cartoon and Animation Festival (CICAF), which has taken place since 2005. Hangzhou in eastern Zhejiang Province has so far won all seven bids.

In 2008, the central budget allocated RMB 7 million to cartoon and animation creation. The fund later doubled to RMB 14 million, and has financed over 100 projects involving full-length cartoon features and Internet and mobile phone animations.

It was against this backdrop that the central authorities proposed making culture a national strategic and pillar industry, for which Chinas animation industry has since acted as bellwether. Taking the cultural industry as a whole, Chinese animations have seen the most rapid development and displayed the best prospects as a market-oriented industry. The animation industry is also the vanguard of Chinas cultural trade in terms of industrialization and a cross-industrial brand operation.

According to the 2011 China Animation and Comic Industry Development Report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, over the 11th Five-year Plan period (2006-2010) China produced 78 animated features – five-fold those of the previous five-year span – and the annual animation industry output soared to 220,000 minutes. A surge in animation products has taken China past Japan as the worlds largest producer of animations.

Quality Not Quantity

Bearing in mind the U.S. animation industrys output value of US $200 billion, and that Japanese animation products occupy about 65 percent of the world market, however, Chinas sizable animation output alone is no reason to feel complacent, Dean of the Animation School of Beijing Film Academy Sun Lijun recently pointed out.

Whats more, tapping the huge Chinese animation market relies on quality as well as quantity. As Cai Daming, director of the Service Center of Shenzhen National Animation Industry Base, commented, “Japan consistently produces high-caliber animation products, but theres nothing that strikes one as a potential classic among Chinas locally produced animation films and TV series, which add up to 220,000 minutes a year.”

Many of the guests at the 7th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival, held in May 2011 in Hangzhou, said that, among the multitudinous animations screened, such decades-old classics as Monkey King, Black Cat Detective and Gourd Brothers apart, The Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf appears to be the only recent work that shows any flair. Japans Conan, Chibi Maruko-chan and Doraemon are, in contrast, all top-notch works that keep children spellbound for years. Japanese animations such as One Piece and Naruto are also huge favorites with adults.

Industry insiders have criticized The Dreams of Jinsha, Chinas first Oscar-nominated animated feature, and most expensive in terms of production costs, for its slapdash storyline. As one disappointed viewer remarked on the Internet, “The scripts absence of rigorous, logical planning has resulted in a vague, inchoate plot. The whole movie gives me the impression of an ill-fitting garment produced by a second-rate tailor.”

Kevin Geiger, a 3D animation production supervisor who has been with Disney for 12 years, expressed surprise at the undue emphasis certain Chinese authorities place on the number of animation institutions in China and on the total minutes of local animation output. He gave the impression that nobody at Disney or Pixar would ever stop to consider how many minutes of features they had produced, and that quality was their prime concern.

Absence of originality is the acknowledged Achilles heel of domestic animations. As many so-called original works are little more than parodies of Japanese, Korean or American animations, few have a dedicated following. Of the 20 most popular animations among Chinese children, 19 are from overseas, Monkey King being the sole local favorite, according to the 2009 China Culture Industry Development Report. Among the most loved cartoon works on the Chinese market, Japanese and South Korean productions account for 60 percent, and those from Europe and the U.S. for 29 percent, while original animations produced in Chinas mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan occupy only an 11 percent share. As the report points out, “The absence of striking, original images in Chinese animations seriously impedes the development of Chinas animation industry.”

China is synonymous throughout the world with its bountiful and splendid traditional culture, which should be obvious, not to mention valuable, sources of inspiration. Yet Chinese animators have failed to retrofit the countrys classic folk tales and literary works, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, A Dream of Red Mansions and Hua Mulan, into works that appeal to present-day audiences. Disney, meanwhile, produced its blockbuster based on the legend of Mulan, and DreamWorks framed Chinas national symbol and one of the most prized facets of its culture in the 2008 global hit Kung Fu Panda. Chinas animators thus sat by while Hollywood exploited the huge potential of their countrys cultural treasures.

“In the 1950s and 1960s, Chinese ink painting animations like Magic Pen Ma Liang, Little Tadpole Looking for Mom, and Monkey King amazed the world,” Kevin Geiger said. It seems to him Chinese animation producers should know that the world expects them to produce cartoons celebrating characteristics of traditional Chinese culture rather than aping foreign successes.

Integrating Resources

China may be the worlds largest animation producer, but compared to animation powerhouses like the U.S. and Japan, it still has a long way to go. “China now has one of the worlds largest animation outputs, but ‘big doesnt necessarily mean‘strong,” Sun Lijun pointed out.

China now has more than 10,000 animation enterprises that produce tens of thousands of animation and related products. Of this cohort, however, only 24 enterprises report an annual output value of more than RMB 30 million, and only 13 are in the RMB 100 million rank.

“As 90 percent of Chinas animation enterprises are small and scattered, they dont enjoy the benefits of integrated resources that provide research and development opportunities and the chance to create more competitive products,” was the comment of Li Yang, vice president of China ACG Group Co., Ltd, on the status quo of Chinas animation industry.Given their current incapacity to produce original works, competing with Hollywood in the short term is a tall order for domestic animation enterprises.

Problems such as absence of a clear profit model and a flawed value chain as regards product copyright also vex Chinas animation industry, as the 2011 China Animation and Comic Industry Development Report points out.

“China should introduce the concept of ‘bigger animation to make the industry more competitive,” said Song Qihui, head of the Animation Section of the Marketing Department of Chinas Ministry of Culture. To her, animation is a compound industry that needs an integrated industrial chain, from creation to the final retail product, covering the traditional industries of publishing, garments and toys, as well as creation and design, and also game development and operation. If an animated feature is well marketed, derivative products can contribute to 70 percent of the entire profits. At present the income of most of Chinas animation enterprises come from TV stations and local government subsidies.

China did attempt to combine animation industry resources a few years ago. The establishment of the Shanghai Animation Derivative Industry Park, first of its kind in China, represents one such foray. As of the end of September 2011, 177 enterprises had set up operations in the park.

Individual enterprises have also tried to extend their value chain. In September 2009, Alpha Animation debuted on the SME board, so becoming the first animation company in the A-share market. With the money raised it branched out into animationbased toy products. This burgeoning and innovative producer of animations and toys is bound to promote development of animation features and TV series and their derivative products.

As the central government clearly proposed in its decisions to deepen reforms to Chinas cultural system, China should hasten development of its emerging creative cultural industry, which encompasses the animation and game sectors. Chinas animation industry is now contemplating a golden growth opportunity, but must first make the transitional leap from production volume leader to premium crowd pleaser.